Hope Church LV Sermons
Hope for the World :: Afshin Ziafat
Well, thank you so much for allowing me to be a part of this body for this night. I'm incredibly blessed. There is definitely the presence of the Lord in this body called Hope Church and I'm just honored to be here in the presence of God with you brothers and sisters in Christ. Again, I'm humbled, I'm honored to be here, thank you Pastor Vance for having me. I've loved getting to know you and your people. I got to speak at the pastor's conference at the Southern Baptist Convention when Pastor Vance invited me and then as a result of that, then I got to go and speak at the youth camp here at Hope for the youth here at Hope and so got to go, I think, last summer and speak there. So, I've heard tons about this church and what the Lord is doing and it's just awesome to be here in your presence. So my name is Afxine Zafat, it's a really hard name. I always tell people, just think of the hair product Afro sheen, which I'm sure you're very familiar with, take the RO out and you've got my name Afxine, so you just want to practice it to get out of the way, real quick, is that cool? On three, all right, just so you don't call me Saddam or something afterwards, right? Afxine on three, here we go, one, two, three, there you go. Now, you don't have fun with it, stretch out the in, okay, one, two, three. Isn't that fun to say, all right, you want to do it again? No. Well, anyway, so my name is Afxine, I grew up in Houston, Texas with the name Afxine Zafat, so it was called the Turban Cowboy Growing Up, which was one of my favorite, Sheikah the Burning Sand, Campbell Jockey, I heard it all growing up, all right? But basically, as you heard, my story is really a life of two cultures clashing, my family moved here right after the Islamic Revolution and the Iran hit, and as you heard, I became a Christian my senior year in high school, but it was as a result from reading a new testament that a second-grade tutor had given me 10 years prior, that second-grade tutor who taught me the English language, loved me, poured herself into me, at a time when nobody loved people from Iran, the Iran hostage crisis was going on, and everybody turned against my family because of what was happening to those American hostages in Iran, but one Christian teacher said, "I'm going to love this Iranian kid," and she poured herself into me, loved me, and I'm so thankful that she gave me a new testament, and had any other American probably given me that new testament that I probably thrown in the trash can, to be honest with you, because I didn't trust many Americans at that time, but one lady showed me the love of Christ first and gave me that new testament I held on to it 10 years later, read it, came to faith in Christ. Ultimately, as you heard, my father would find out, I hid it from him for a while, and he found out, and he made me choose between him and following Christ, and everything in me wanted to keep my father, but by God's strength I was able to choose Christ that day, my father disowned me, and my story has just not been about my faithfulness to God, because let me tell you, I went kicking and screaming, but my story is one of God's continued faithfulness to me, as I've lost my life to follow him, he's been so faithful to give me life and open doors for me to be able to live a life for his glory, and that's what I want to talk to you about today, I want to just encourage you and challenge you to keep doing what you're doing, the work that God has started in you was not meant to terminate with you, but meant to shape this church and that the gospel would go forth from this church and out of even this region to reach the nations as we've been singing about, and so with that in mind what I would love for you to do, if you grab your Bibles and turn with me to the book of 1 Thessalonians, God put this passage, one of my favorite passages in the Bible on my heart, I was really wrestling between two directions and on the plane, Jordan kind of said, "I think you need to go in this direction," and so God used Jordan to lead me to this, and so this is horrible, it's Jordan's fault, so everyone turn to 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, and I want us to really quickly pray and prepare our heart for God's word, and then we're going to read. So turn to 1 Thessalonians, once you get there, would you buy your head with me, and take a quick moment, and would you pray, soundly, individually, so don't pray out loud, don't just individually where you are, would you just right now pray and say, "God speak to my heart, God speak to my heart, and move me by your spirit," and pray that I'm going to close in just a second. Father, we love you, we thank you, God, for this body, we thank you that you say we're two or more gathered in your name than you're there, that you inhabit the praises of your people, and Lord, we know, and I have since, God, your presence is in this place, and so Lord, as we come to your word, we come as an act of worship, and Lord, we pray that you would speak directly to our hearts, not because of my words, Lord, but by your word. Lord, would you anoint this place, would your Holy Spirit take your word, that you promise will accomplish the purpose for which it was sent, and that it will not return void, and God, would it fall on fertile soils in our heart, and God, would you draw us to you, to know and follow you, and to see the big picture of what you're doing, and to join you in your mission, Lord. We love you, it's in Christ's name, we pray, amen. Real quick background, so Paul goes to Thessalonica in his second missionary journey, Thessalonica is the capital of Macedonia, a Roman province, in modern day Greece, and he goes there and he preaches the gospel, and eventually a few followers of Christ are birthed in a small church's birth, but then the Jews in that town are kind of upset with Paul preaching the gospel, and so they come and they eventually drive him out of Thessalonica, and then they drive him out, he goes to Berea, they find out that he's preaching the gospel there, then they go to Berea and drive him out of that town as well. So that's how much persecution Paul was receiving for preaching the gospel. Paul ends up going to Athens, and he sends his young disciple Timothy back to Thessalonica to check on the church that he left behind. I mean, after all, if he's getting this much heat, how much heat are they getting back in Thessalonica? So he sends Timothy back to see how they're doing, and Timothy brings back a report and they meet up in Corinth, and he brings back a report that not only are the Christians and Thessalonica still standing strong for the Lord, but that the word of the Lord is sounding forth from them in all regions. And so Paul pens this letter that is called Thessalonians after receiving this report, and he pens this letter gushing with praise to God for what God has done in this church. Now if you want to see it real quickly, in 1 Thessalonians 3 verse 6, look what it says, and 1 Thessalonians 3 verse 6, "But now that Timothy has come to us from you and has brought us the good news of your faith and love and reported that you always remember us kindly and long to see us as we long to see you for this reason brothers in all our distress and affliction, we have been comforted about you through your faith. We're comforted in our affliction because of your faith. And so what I want us to do really quickly is in chapter 1 of 1 Thessalonians in a few verses just to see how the gospel transformed this body, this church, and how through this church the gospel spread out not only to their region but to what the Bible says everywhere. Look what it says here in 1 Thessalonians 1 verse 4, "For we know brothers loved by God that he has chosen you because our gospel came to you not only in word but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction, you know what kind of men we prove to be among you for your sake and you became imitators of us and of the Lord. For you received the word and much affliction with joy of the Holy Spirit so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere so that we need not say anything. For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you and how you turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for his son from heaven who he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come. I want you to see in a few stages just the progression of what happened with this Thessalonian Church and I pray that it will inspire us and inspire your church, hope church to see what God could do that you serve a God who is able to do immeasurably more than all you asked or imagined. You cannot outthink what God is able to do through this body and I want you just to see this. It first starts with an understanding, a proper deep conviction and understanding of the gospel of grace. Look at verse 4, really quickly, look at the very first verse we read in verse 4, it says, "For we know, brothers, loved by God that he has chosen you." And what I submit to you is this, that the gospel is the fuel for our missions. The gospel is the fuel, a proper understanding of the grace that you have received is the fuel for you to live a mission of life. And so it says we know, brothers, that you are loved by God and that he has chosen you. Do you know that the scripture teaches that, man, we were chosen by God not because of anything we did or merited, but because of his love? I want you to see here that his choosing us is rooted in his love. Look what it says one more time. We know that you are loved by God that he has chosen you, okay? Jesus says in John 15, "You did not choose me, but I chose you out of the world." Ephesians chapter 1 says that God chose us before the foundation of the world, before you did anything to deserve it, God, if you are a follower of Christ, God set his love on you by his grace and mercy. It was not merited at all. And I want you to know that that should blow us away. This is love. I think of Deuteronomy 7 when God speaks through the prophet to his people and he says it's not that you were great in number that God chose you, all right? But it's because God loved you. In other words, it proves, man, if you're a follower of Christ, that God loved you and love is unmerited. For instance, if I love my wife Meredith for what she does for me, then I don't really love her, right? I love what she does for me, okay? And so love has to be freely given, okay? That's why my favorite scripture as a former Muslim is this, that God demonstrates his love in this, that while you were yet sinners, Christ died for you. Before I did anything to deserve it, God, Jesus died for me to demonstrate his love for me, okay? It goes on to say that we were enemies of God, all right? It's not that I was just an innocent bystander and I didn't deserve his love. No, I was actually an enemy of God. It was my sin that nailed him to the cross. It was me and rebellion walking away from God and yet God had mercy on me. I preached this point essentially my entire message at the Southern Baptist Convention pastors conference when Pastor Vance asked me to preach. This was really my point right here and I said to, I don't know how many pastors were in the room, many thousands, but I said this and I didn't know if I was going to get kind of rebuked for this, but I felt like I wanted to say it and I felt like God called me to say it and I said, and I didn't get rebuked for it. But I said, I said, you know, folks, I said, here's the deal. When we remember, when our people truly understand that we were enemies of God, then it changes the way we view others and I said, look, if Paul were with us today and he heard about Osama bin Laden's death, he wouldn't run down to Pennsylvania Avenue outside the White House and High Five and Hooping Haller. He would fall flat on his face and say, thank you God that you had mercy on me when I was Osama bin Laden hunting down the church. Okay? Now listen, I'm not condoning Osama bin Laden, I'm not condoning al-Qaeda, I'm not condoning terrorism at all, okay? But I'm just saying, when I understand that I was an enemy of God, I forfeit the right to cheer anyone's death without them knowing Jesus. I don't care how much of an enemy they are, right? And so here's the deal. Here's the deal. Osama bin Laden may be a drastic example for us tonight, it is, but here's the deal. Put him aside, I've traveled all over this country and preached and I've had people come up to me and say, in tears, after you forgive me, why? Because I've never cared for Muslims, I've never loved them the way you're calling me to. I said, man, don't pray for, I mean, don't ask for my forgiveness, go back and read Romans 5, go back and read Ephesians 2, all right? That man, we were dead in our trespasses, I mean, when the gospel reminds me that man, it's not because of my intellect that I know Jesus, but that I needed the mind of Christ in order to be able to discern the spiritual things. Ephesians 2, again, that I was spiritually dead before Christ made me alive, okay? Do you understand that it's by grace that you have even received the revelation of Jesus in your life, that you've been enlightened, that your eyes have been opened, all right? That your mind was able, by God's will, to understand who Jesus is and then receive him in faith, that's an act of grace. So I get to today go into the Middle East and train Iranian men and women who feel called to the ministry and they go back into Iran, I can't get into Iran, but I go to a neighboring country, train these men and they go back into Iran and plan underground churches. Now some of these folks, they come to our training center, they feel called to the ministry, but really in the back of their heart, they really want to get out of Iran. They want to get to the West and they think sometimes, I'm serious, they wrestle with this, this might be my ticket to get to America or get to the West. And you know how we know they really got the gospel is when they do this, man, I can't go to America, there's no way, there's no way I could go to the West. I can't know what I know and not go back to Iran. Now what are we doing here in America? They feel the weight of the stewardship, of just the grace of receiving the revelation of scripture to know Jesus. And so when I understand that it's by grace, it fuels me. So it starts off, we know that God has loved you, it's the gospel and then look, the gospel transforms them to repent, look at verse five. Because our gospel came to you, not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction, what Paul is saying is this, that hey, we know God chose you because our gospel didn't come to you just in word, but it came in power and full conviction, it changed you, right, by the Holy Spirit. That's how we know you're chosen, right? So what does that say, that means the gospel goes, in some places, just in word, it's like when the parable of the sower with the seed, that some seed falls on rocky soil, some seed the thorns come out and drown it out, some seed, the bird snatches the word of God, right? Some people hear the word of God, but they don't respond, but he's saying, I know that man, God has chosen you because the gospel came and man, it moved you to full conviction by the Holy Spirit. Now how do you know that someone has really received the gospel? Look at verse 9, jump down to verse 9, for they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, look what it says, and how you turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God. When someone comes to faith in Christ, they not only believe the right things about Jesus, but man, they're willing to turn from idols to lose anything in their life that comes before following God and give their life wholeheartedly to serve Jesus, to serve the living and true God, to lose your idols, what am I talking about? It moves true repentance, moves to sacrifice, right? To walk away from idols, and many times our idols are ourselves or our own dreams, our own plans. I think of Matthew 16, for instance, when Peter says to Jesus, after Jesus says that he's going to go to Jerusalem, suffer, die, and rise again, Peter says to Jesus, far be it from you, Lord, this shall never happen to you, why? Because Peter says in my mind, that's not the way it's going to play out. No, Jesus, no, you're supposed to be an earthly Messiah, you're going to come and be an earthly ruler and drive out Rome and set up an earthly kingdom, and he didn't understand that the Messiah was going to be a suffering servant, and the Messiah was going to down the cross to set up an heavenly kingdom, right? So he says, this shall never happen to you, and Jesus says to Peter, get behind me Satan, for you're not mindful of the things of God, but the things of man. Your eyes are on the things of man, and on your plan, and you're not losing all those idols to say, God, I'm serving you whatever you have for me, all right? And so in my life, my father disowned me for being a Christian. I went upstairs to my room and said, God, how could you do this to me? And I began reading in the scripture where Jesus says, if anyone does not hate his father and mother, all right, he cannot be my disciple, whoever loves his father and mother more than me is not worthy of me. Jesus goes on to tell Peter in the disciples, if anyone wants to come after me, miss, deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. There's a sacrifice, you've got to lose the idols and say, I'm yours. And then he says this, for if anyone wants to save his life, he'll lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it, and here's what I want desperately for you. You've received the gospel, all right, good, now here's what I want for you, that you would lose your life in order to find life in Christ. Let me tell you how that played out for me. My father disowned me, then he took me back in as long as I'd be a doctor and make him proud. My dad was a doctor, and he was going to pay for my entire medical school, and I was going to take over his practice and be set for life. So I went to the University of Texas, and my father again had kind of come to grips with my Christianity, and so now I wanted to make him proud. So my sister, she knew I was running from God's call in my life, and she wrote me a letter, and she said, "F Sheen, you're trying to please your dad over pleasing God." And she said, "F Sheen, a Christian out of God's will, is like a fish out of water. He will struggle until he's put back in the water," and I was struggling. She quoted 1 John 2, 17, which says, "The world in this desire is passed away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever." So the hardest thing I had to do was tell my dad, "Dad, I'm not going to medical school. I'm not going to medical school. I'm going into full-time ministry. God's calling me. My father again disowned me, and I say to you, listen, today I get to go into the Middle East and train pastors who are going into Iran, the country we came out of, to plant underground churches. Are you hearing me? Today I could be a doctor and have my dad proud of me, but I would have missed the life Christ had for me. And so I say to you, listen to me, some of you, some of you hear it, please hear me. If you try to say, "Okay, thank you for heaven, but don't touch my life," and you hold on to it, what are you missing out on? What are you losing? But if you say, "God, I'll lose it all to follow you." Our example is Jesus. He prays in the garden. He says, "Father, if this cup may pass, but not my will, your will be done. I'm following you, whatever it costs." So it requires a sacrifice in Jesus, your Lord is your greatest example. It was fueled by the gospel, it led to a repentance, it led to a sacrifice. It was driven by the word, their impact, look at verse 6, look at verse 6, and you became imitators of us and of the Lord for you received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Spirit. What he's saying is this, that even though you were afflicted around you, you received the word and followed it. And look when it says how they took the word of God, look at 2.13, 1 Thessalonians 2.13, and we also thank God constantly for this, that when you receive the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers. So here's the deal, here's what I pray for you, that you would understand the gospel, that you would sacrifice idols to say, "Jesus, I'll follow you," and that you will listen to God in his word. I'm not saying you shouldn't have counselors in your life. Men and women who are older in the faith that could pour into you, but I am saying that at some times, I think of Paul when he says that when God chose me to preach to the Gentiles, I didn't immediately go confer with men. I went away to Arabia, I received a word from God, and my prayer is for some of you in this conference that you hear a word from God that convicts you. And you say, "It didn't matter what anyone says around me, I've got to do this." My dad's friends, when they found out that I was walking away from my dad's practice to go into ministry with $4 in my pocket, they picked up the phone and called me, and said, "Do you know what you're walking away from?" And they said, "Young man, you're crazy, but whoever said it had to make sense to them." When God calls you, you move, Isaiah 30 says, "Woe to my people who make plans for their life without consulting me, who go to Pharaoh in Egypt to ask the advice of Pharaoh in Egypt. Therefore, the shame of Pharaoh in Egypt should turn to their shame." And Isaiah 30, 18 says, "But blessed are those who wait upon the Lord." Goes on to say, "They'll hear a word in their ears saying, 'This is the way turn in it,' whether you turn to the right or left." That's what I want my life to be about. At the end of the day, I want to say, "Man, the only way you can explain my life is that God did it." And so I want to hear a word from God. So my prayer is some of you will hear what God is calling you to commit to this week, this weekend. And so, man, they understood the gospel, they sacrificed, they were led by the word, then they became an example. Look at verse 7, "So that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in a cayor." Listen to me, ladies and gentlemen, their faith went out so much further because they became an example worthy of following. Now how do they become an example? You've got to go back to verse 6, what I just read. "You became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Spirit, so you became an example." Here's how they became an example, eyes on me, don't miss it. They became an example because they followed the word and followed God and demonstrated their faith in affliction, not in prosperity. When things were going bad, you kept following and your faith went out more. I say your faith will shine more in affliction than when it does, when everything's going well. Now how do they become an example? Look at 2.14, 1 Thessalonians 2.14, look what it says, "For you brothers became imitators of the churches of God and Christ Jesus that are in Judea, for you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews." In other words, the church back in Jerusalem suffered persecution from the Jews for becoming Christian, guess what, you from your countrymen in Greece are receiving the same persecution. So what he's saying is this, that God is using your affliction to spread the gospel even more than you could imagine, listen, you know what I love, here's how Paul says it. Don't miss it, this is one of my favorite scriptures, Philippians 1, he already says, in Philippians 1, in fact I want to read it real quickly to you, in Philippians 1 verse 12, he says this, and Paul is writing from a Roman prison cell, and in Philippians 1, 12 he says, "I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel so that it became known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ." And here's what he's saying, look, he's saying, look, you might think that here I am in prison, this is hindering the gospel. Here's Paul, the apostle, the evangelist of the Lord, and he's in prison. So obviously, man, the word of the Lord's going to be hindered a little bit, he said, no, no, no, on the contrary, actually God is using my chains to advance it even further. You know what he says, the whole Praetorian guard, let me tell you who the Praetorian guard was, it was the imperial Roman guard, you know what it was, don't miss this, 9,000 of the most elite, educated Roman men were chosen because of what they did to merit it, by the way, were chosen to be part of the Praetorian. And one of the responsibilities, you ready for this, was that one by one, each one of these 9,000, one by one, every day, they would be imprisoned, I mean, excuse me, they'd be chained, sorry, to a notorious prisoner. So look at God's plan, take 9,000 of the most elite, educated men in the society and chain them one by one to the apostle Paul. If either of you are going to hear the Gospel, yeah, they're going to hear the Gospel. The Gospel is going to spread. You think this is working against the Gospel but God is actually serving to use it. I was so, just so blessed to hear, and I know it's probably hard to say this but I know it really hurt this church and financially I know it's hurt the church but to hear the story of the flood that came here, right after I heard it was right after the initiative was launched 50 to 50 and 30 days, 50, 50,000 of those invitations to 50,000 households in 30 days to come to this church and then a flood hits this church. Now what do you, anyone on the outside would say, oh man, that's going to hinder that initiative, right? That's going to work against the Gospel going out but what I heard is that this church was on the front of the news for 5 straight days so that when those 50,000 cards went out, they'd say, hey come to Hope Church, what's that church? Would you watch the news? Oh, that church. And so guess what, flood came, no, no, no, no, no, on the contrary, God actually used the flood, right, to spread the Gospel even more, all right? So you became, so look, you became an example in your affliction and Iran, two young ladies were put in prison for 259 days, Mariam and Marzia, they were put in prison and I wish I had time to tell you their whole story but they spread 20,000 new testaments just between these two young ladies in the city of Tehran, 20,000. The government was hunting them down, finally found them and arrested them through them in prison, they're released now. But when they threw them in prison, you know what they did? They took these small red new testaments that they were passing out in the modern Farsi translation, okay? And they took a picture of those red new testaments, no joke, and they put it in the Tehran newspaper with an advertisement on the front page with this new testament and it said this, don't read these books. Free advertisement, free advertisement. Now everyone in Tehran wants to get their hands on this red new test, okay? And so God, in fact, in your affliction is using the Gospel, do you believe that? And then finally, I want you to see that the words spread out of their region and this is going to speak to all of us today. Look what it says in verse 8, "For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia in Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere so that we need not say anything." And here's what I want you to understand, and here's how I want to kind of drive to a close, that the Gospel, when it impacts your life, God's plan has always been to draw people to Himself and then to send that people out, out of their bubble, out of their comfort zone to the others, if you will. You go all the way to the beginning, Abraham is called, leave your father's country and go to a land that I'll show you. I'll make you a great nation, but the greatest promise he made to Abraham is that through you all the families of the earth will be blessed. In other words, it's not going to be just for you and your tribe, Abraham, it's going to go through you and my gospel will impact all the world, okay? Jesus comes in John 10 and he looks at the Jews of his day and he said that I am the good shepherd. I lay my life down for the sheep. And then he goes on and says, "But I have other sheep that are not of this fold and I must call them also, draw them also so that there will be one flock and one shepherd. What he's saying by implication to them is this. It's not just for you." So the gospel is ascending gospel to get out of your comfort zone, to get out of your bubble. Acts chapter 10, Peter is sitting on a rooftop and he has a vision and this, he has a vision of these, the sheep coming down with all kinds of animals in it. And he hears God say, "Peter, take, kill, and eat." And Peter says, "I will not touch what is common and unclean." And God says, "Don't call what I have made common and unclean." And right then there's a wrap at the door and a Gentile man named Cornelius has received a vision to call on Peter and to ask him to come to his home. And so Peter does something that is really unheard of in those days and he walks into a Gentile man's home, getting out of his comfort zone, going to the other people. And he goes and he proclaims the gospel, Cornelius and his household receive the Holy Spirit, they're baptized and Peter goes back to the good Christians back at the base camp in Jerusalem and they rebuke him for what he did. How dare you preach to the Gentiles. And Peter says, "If they receive the same Holy Spirit that we received, who am I to stand in God's way?" This is God's plan. You know what I love? One of my favorite passages, the Bible says there that the church felt silent and they glorified God in their hearts, for they understood that the message of the gospel was not just for the Jew but for the Gentile. They understood it's for everyone and I'm called to get out of my comfort zone. So my prayer is this, that you will hear a word from God, that you will pray for your enemy. Are you with me? Remembering that you're an enemy, that you will give financially and you'll give your life to the spread of the gospel that you've been given by grace and that you will go and get uncomfortable. Get out of your comfort zone, some of you in this room may be called to do that. This weekend even, to sacrifice and lose your life and to go. And I want to close our time with a story that's really impacted my wife and I. I shared it a youth camp actually. And it's a story of a young man that just really, just Meredith and I have just been in awe about this story and so I want to share it with you as we close. It's a book called I Would Die For You, okay, I don't know if you can see this but probably not. But anyways, trust me, it's called I Would Die For You, okay. And it's by Brent and Deanna Higgins and it's about this little boy named BJ Higgins. And I want to tell you BJ's story real quickly. BJ came to faith in Christ at the age of eight. He wasn't in the youth group, he wasn't old enough but his father was on staff at the church, brought him to the youth meeting, he heard the gospel, gave his life to Christ. Now hear this, BJ so understood, even at an early age, that this gospel was calling him to do something. In other words, to get out that I'm not making this up, at the age of nine and ten, BJ is sharing his faith on the school bus. At the age of 13, 14, young teenager, he's online, his parents told me sharing his faith, his parents would come and say, "BJ, get to bed, it's your curfew." And he'd say, "Mom, dad, I'm sharing my faith." And they're like, "What do we do with that?" "We never have that problem before, you know?" And I'm not trying to put this guy on a pedestal. I just want you to know one kid, teenager, who understood that the gospel was driving him to get uncomfortable, to get out and go. So he felt called to the mission field. In fact, he told his sister, "You and I, we're going to go to Morocco together. I just know it." Well, before BJ made it to Morocco, he went on a mission trip to Peru and he contracted a rare disease. And after a six-month battle, BJ Higgins passed away and he went to be with the Lord. And this book is written by his parents, taking the writings of a young teenage, 14, 15-year-old boy, and you'd be shocked what a young teenager was writing in his journal. Let me just read a portion of it for you today. BJ writes, "It's time that we, as the professed Christians of America, wake up from our sleep of lethargy and hypocrisy and stop only living for Christ on Sundays and start acting as Christ says all of his disciples must act. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. We must die to ourselves daily. We must forget our comfort zones, our clicks of friends, and go out and share the love and rescuing truth of Jesus Christ with a lost, empty suffering and dying people of the world all around us as Christ has commanded." 15 years old. Well, Meredith bought this book when I was in the Middle East training pastors. And I came back and my wife hands me this book, she goes, "You won't believe this. Turn to page 32." And I turn to page 32 and it says this, hold on one second, it says, "When BJ was in elementary school, he had just heard Afshin Zafat speak and he accepted Christ. So I was the guy that preached at the youth meeting when he came to faith in Christ. And listen now, hold on, I travel and preach so many times and I never see the result. This was one time God let my wife and I see the result. So we got on our face and just started thanking the Lord and I hear me, in case in the back of your mind you think I'm boasting right now. First of all, you can never boast for salvation belongs to God. But in case you think I am ready for this, I did some research. This was my first speaking engagement ever, all right? So you know my message was horrible, all right? That's why Jesus loves you, amen, all right? But again, I'm just trying to tell you, look what God can, don't tell me God can't use you. Are you ready for this? These parents found us, I don't have time for you to clap, I've got to get down here. So BJ's parents found out and they contact me through email and they go, "You let our son to Christ." They go, "I know, I got the book." They go, "Well, we live in Oklahoma and I was like, I'm going to be there next week." So we went to dinner with them and man, I don't even remember what I ate, I just bald crying the whole time hearing, because look, you might say, "Why would God take a 15-year-old who's sharing his faith so passionately?" You see, BJ had eyes on something other than this world. Just as the end of this passage in 1 Thessalonians that we read, it says that they're waiting for his son from heaven whom he raised from the dead Jesus. Their eyes were on this world and what they would lose. BJ wanted his life to make an eternal impact. So get this. BJ's parents told us, "You know, why would God take a 15-year-old? Great for this?" BJ's parents told us that after his funeral, they took his ashes and they went with this sister to Morocco and they went on a hill overlooking a Muslim village. I don't let it be lost on you, either a former Muslim preached to him, okay? Went on a hill overlooking a Muslim village. I didn't expect this to happen, hold on one second, okay? And they spread out his ashes on this hill and they prayed for that Moroccan Muslim village, okay? Came back home, thought nothing more of it. Later they found out that the Muslim guy that took him to the top of that hill was so impacted by BJ's story that he gave his life to Christ and you ready for this? That that guide, I'm not making this up, now today is now the pastor of the underground church in that Muslim village in Morocco sharing the gospel, all right? So BJ's life, yeah, so BJ's life through his death is impacting. One more thing, BJ's dad after that went to Kenya and he's sitting on a bus and a Sudanese young man comes and sits down next to him and he starts sharing his faith with his young man and the guy goes, oh, I know Jesus, I just don't have a Bible. And BJ's dad goes no, because the only Bible he had with him was BJ's Bible that had BJ's writings in it and he preaches from that Bible and so he looks at this guy and he's like, I can't give you this Bible, but I'll pray you find one, all right? And then so God convicts him and he wrestles with God and God says, give him the Bible. So he turns and he goes, it's yours, I just got to pray for you and he's praying for this young man from Sudan and God says, Brent, I just want you to know. He's praying for the next evangelist in East Africa. So he finishes praying and he goes, young man, you're going to be an evangelist and his face lights up, because I'm just curious, how old are you? You guessed it, 15 years old. And he has BJ's Bible sharing, preaching the gospel today. So listen, here's all I'm saying to you, what could God do that will reverberate through your life maybe even after your death if you would be willing to take your fist and your clench on your life and say, Jesus, I let go, it's yours. I'm going to pray, but I'm going to give you this one last verse. Jesus says in John 12, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it will bear much fruit. He meant that about himself, his death, that bore fruit in our lives. But hear me, for us today, you can believe the right things and just clench and hold on to your life, and it will be about you. Or you can say, Jesus, I want to die to my own desires and my own will, and I want to follow whatever you have on a hero word from you. And I want to serve you, God, with my life, unless you die, you remain alone. But if you die, you will bear much fruit. And you may not die physically like BJ to bear fruit, but some of you in this room, you may have to die to yourself. You may have to die to your dream, you may have to die to a relationship. [BLANK_AUDIO]